Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) thwarted an Islamic State plot to bomb a train in central Moscow, a shopping mall in a Moscow suburb and the headquarters of the GRU military intelligence service, the Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday, citing sources close to the investigation.
Tajik national Tojiddin Nazarov, who uses the nom de guerre Abu Usama Noraki, is believed to be behind the Moscow plot. The Islamic State operative has been linked to the 2017 truck attack in Stockholm, Sweden that killed five pedestrians and the 2018 deadly attack on four foreign cyclists in Tajikistan.
“According to Noraki’s plot, the brigade planned to simultaneously blow up train passengers on the Moscow ring railway and shoppers at the Edelweis shopping center in the Balashikha suburbs,” the outlet reported.
“The insurgents planned to finish off the survivors of the bombing attacks with grenades and automatic weapons,” it said.
The group behind the GRU plot was rounded up while attempting to buy bomb components in 2016, and the train bombing group has been sentenced to prison terms of 14 to 19 years, Kommersant said.
Noraki is believed to be hiding in Mosul, Iraq.
Islamic State is a terrorist group banned in Russia.